


No One Told Me I Was Going to Find You

by poisonivory



Series: Things My Heart Used to Know [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Blow Jobs, First Time, Hand Jobs, M/M, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 08:15:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonivory/pseuds/poisonivory
Summary: Roy laughed and leaned in to kiss him again. “Stay,” he said. “I’d like you to. Please?”Jay nodded, but he still didn’t meet Roy’s eyes. “I’ve, um. I’ve never...before. With anyone.”Roy blinked. “Oh.”“I didn’t...when I was a kid, I was trying to keep people from pimping me out, or worse,” Jay said. “And then even when I got older, it just, I didn’t…” He took a breath. “It never feltsafe.”Roy’s chest gave that funny squeeze it did all too often when he was around Jay, the one that wasn’t comfortable at all but that he was coming to love regardless. Jay felt safe withhim. Roy had been given so many gifts he didn’t deserve, Lian being foremost among them, but the thought of having Jay’s trust still left him feeling daunted and unworthy.-A fluffy, smutty coda to Things My Heart Used to Know.
Relationships: Roy Harper/Jason Todd
Series: Things My Heart Used to Know [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1958314
Comments: 27
Kudos: 232





	No One Told Me I Was Going to Find You

**Author's Note:**

> You can probably read this without reading Things My Heart Used to Know, but it might be a little confusing? Just skip to the porn, I guess!
> 
> The title is from "At the Beginning" from _Anastasia_ , of course.

Roy let himself drop down onto the couch next to Jay with a groan. “Please explain to me how moving is this exhausting when I barely owned any stuff in the first place?”

Jay raised an eyebrow. “I dunno. If you’re surprised that finding an apartment, flying cross-country to pack up all your belongings and shipping them east, and buying enough furniture for two people, all in a week, is a lot of work, I’m not sure _how_ to explain it to you.”

“Don’t make fun of me, I’m tired,” Roy said, shifting so he could rest his head on Jay’s shoulder. “And I didn’t have a choice. School starts in less than a month. I wanted Lian to feel settled before throwing _another_ big change at her.”

Jay rubbed his thigh. “She’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.” Roy could only pray. His five-year-old daughter had been held at gunpoint barely three weeks ago, and that was _after_ a spontaneous road trip across the country with a stranger and a week in Gotham’s shittiest motel. Since then, they’d been living out of a nicer hotel while Roy scrambled to find an apartment. Jay and Dick had both offered the hospitality of Wayne Manor, but Roy couldn’t quite get comfortable with the idea of moving himself and his daughter into his brand-new boyfriend’s father’s house, even if the house was practically big enough to contain multiple zip codes.

The hotel had been nice, but it was still a hotel. The new apartment was worlds better than their place in Coast City, but they’d been there less than twenty-four hours. It was a lot of upheaval for a little girl, and that wasn’t even taking into account the two days Roy had had to leave her at the manor while he flew to California and packed up their old place.

Or maybe Lian was fine and Roy was the one freaking out about all the changes - especially how much money he’d spent in the past few weeks. He’d been reluctant to touch Lian’s trust fund at all, until Bruce had promised to have his CFO Lucius Fox walk Roy through how to invest it so that it grew over time rather than shrank. Still, even though he’d grown up in a mansion, after seven years of counting every penny, it was hard to break the habit.

“She’ll be _fine_ ,” Jay said again. “She’s got a bunk bed and Pokemon sheets, she’s the happiest child on the planet right now.”

Roy cracked a smile. One of those lofted bunk beds with a desk underneath it had been Lian’s only stipulation about the new apartment, and the first piece of furniture he’d put into place. Their beds, the couch, the dining set, and the coffee table were the only things set up, with everything else still in boxes or shopping bags, but at least his baby girl had a place to sleep. In fact, she’d been conked out in it for hours already while Roy and Jay tried to get the rest of the apartment in some kind of order.

“God. She’s starting _kindergarten_ in a month,” Roy said, putting a hand over his face. “She’s not a baby anymore. Jay, I’m _so old_.”

“You still look pretty good to me,” Jay said. “Smart, starting fatherhood in your teens. Very strategic.”

Roy laughed into his palm. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to give you a compliment.” Jay tugged Roy’s hand away from his face. “Come here.”

Roy sank into the kiss with a contented sigh. This...this had made the insanity of the past three weeks worth it. Jay, being gorgeous and caustically funny and somehow possibly as into Roy as Roy was into him. Roy still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Hey,” Jay said against Roy’s lips. “You know how everyone freaks out if I’m not home exactly when they expect me to be?”

“You were _kidnapped_ , Jay, I think it’s reasonable,” Roy said, and then remembered it was after midnight. “Shit, do you have to go?”

He started to stand, but Jay pulled him back down. “Not exactly,” Jay said. His gaze was fixed on Roy’s shoulder and not his face, and it was hard to tell in this lighting - Roy needed to buy, like, a dozen lamps - but it looked like he was blushing. “I said I’d probably end up staying here for the night. Which was an _extremely_ embarrassing conversation, incidentally, but I can still go if...if you want me to.”

Roy abruptly felt significantly less tired. “Well, you _did_ help pick out my bed. You might as well help me break it in.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Gross.”

Roy laughed and leaned in to kiss him again. “Stay,” he said. “I’d like you to. Please?”

Jay nodded, but he still didn’t meet Roy’s eyes. “I’ve, um. I’ve never...before. With anyone.”

Roy blinked. “Oh.”

“I didn’t...when I was a kid, I was trying to keep people from pimping me out, or worse,” Jay said. “And then even when I got older, it just, I didn’t…” He took a breath. “It never felt _safe_.”

Roy’s chest gave that funny squeeze it did all too often when he was around Jay, the one that wasn’t comfortable at all but that he was coming to love regardless. Jay felt safe with _him_. Roy had been given so many gifts he didn’t deserve, Lian being foremost among them, but the thought of having Jay’s trust still left him feeling daunted and unworthy.

“We can do whatever you’re comfortable with,” he said. “Even if it’s just sleeping.”

Jay gave him a look like he thought Roy was an idiot. “Uh, no, I want to have sex,” he said, and Roy had to cover his mouth so that he didn’t laugh loud enough to wake Lian.

“We can do that too, Jaybird,” he said, standing up and offering Jay his hands. “Bedroom?”

“I told you that’s a stupid nickname,” Jay said, as if Roy hadn’t noticed the way he had to fight a smile every time Roy used it. He let Roy pull him off the couch and left his hand in Roy’s as they made their way to the bedroom.

“Guess you’ll have to keep telling me.” Roy stopped a foot away from the bed and tugged Jay in close. “Later.”

Jay came easily, cupping Roy’s face in his hands and kissing him without a hint of shyness. Roy wasn’t used to having to tilt his head up to kiss someone - even when he’d been with men, none of them had been as tall as Jay - but he liked it, the feeling of being the smaller one, even if it was only by a couple of inches. Liked the solidity of Jay’s hips under his hands, how he was already filling out under Alfred’s cooking, his hipbones less prominent than they’d been on the drive to Gotham.

He let his fingers slip under the hem of Jason’s shirt, pressing into the warm skin there. “Okay if I take your shirt off?” he murmured.

Jay paused. “You first,” he said.

Roy smiled and stepped back, pulling his shirt off and tossing it onto one of the many cardboard boxes filling his bedroom. Jay’s eyebrows went up.

“Oh,” he said. “There’s...I mean, I knew you had tattoos, but it looks like more this way.”

Roy’s smile widened. “It is more,” he said, turning around. Jay couldn’t have missed the poppies winding their way up his right arm, the bow and arrow on his inner left forearm or the band around his left bicep, but he knew they all looked more stark against his pale torso. And since Roy had always changed in the bathroom when they were on the road, Jay wouldn’t have seen the one on Roy’s back.

“A willow tree?” Jay asked.

“For Lian,” Roy explained, turning back to face him. “That’s what her name means.”

“Oh,” Jay said again. His hand was already reaching out but it stopped in midair, his expression uncertain. “Can I…?”

“Go ahead,” Roy said. He stood easy and relaxed, arms held slightly out from his body, and watched as Jay traced the lines of his tattoos down his shoulders and arms, didn’t move as Jay stepped around and touched the willow, too, even as goosebumps sprang up wherever Jay’s gentle fingers touched. “Wait until you get a load of the one on my ass.”

Jay came back around to his front, looking skeptical. “You don’t have one on your ass.”

“I guess you’ll find out, won’t you?” Roy asked, grinning. “Your turn.”

Jay paused again, enough that Roy almost told him it was okay, he didn’t have to take his shirt off if he didn’t want to - but then Jay bit his lip and tugged his own shirt over his head, sending it onto the box after Roy’s. He stood, chin up slightly, like he was waiting for judgment.

It had to be the scars. They shouldn’t have surprised Roy, really. He was very familiar with the ones on Jay’s eyebrow and chin, on his neck; he’d kissed them enough times over the past few weeks to learn them by heart. If he’d thought about it, he would have known where they’d come from, and that they couldn’t be the only ones. But he hadn’t thought about it.

They were faint, after six years. Silvery-pink lines and little puckered punctures; faintly shiny patches that must have been burns at one point. But they were scattered all over his body, and there were enough of them that Roy would have had some serious questions if he hadn’t already known the answers.

Jay still looked like he thought Roy might throw his shirt back at him in disgust. But all Roy felt was sorrow for the child Jay had been, and gratitude that he had survived, and a simmering need to get his hands on Jay right this very minute.

He did his best to let the last one be the only thing showing on his face. “Jesus. Rich, hot, _and_ you put together IKEA furniture? You’re a fucking catch, Jaybird, I tell you what.”

Jay rolled his eyes, but his body language was pure relief. “You’re such an idiot,” he said, even as he stepped back into Roy’s arms and kissed him again. Roy put his hands back on Jay’s waist, and when Jay shivered but didn’t tense or move away, Roy let himself explore the broad span of his torso, warm and solid beneath his palms.

Jay made a soft, startled sound when Roy’s thumb brushed a nipple, and Roy smiled. “How do you feel about getting on the bed?”

Jay’s cheeks were adorably pink. “It’s a pretty good bed. And you did just wash those sheets.”

“Yeah, well, that may have been poor planning on my part, as it turns out,” Roy said, and Jay paused for a second to work it out, then rolled his eyes. Roy laughed and stepped back again, undoing his fly and pushing his jeans down. He let it all be matter-of-fact: that he was taking his pants off; that there was an obvious erection tenting his boxers; that he was sitting down on his brand new bed and leaning back against the pillows. Giving Jay room to move at his own pace, but without the kind of kid glove treatment that would have just pissed him off.

“Uh,” Jay said, and then visibly hid his shyness, pushing his own pants down and kicking them out of the way.

And holy fucking Christ, if someone had told Roy a little over a month ago that Jason Todd standing in his bedroom wearing nothing but a pair of red boxer briefs and visibly hard would be one of the best things he’d ever seen, he would have thought he’d fallen back in with his old junkie crowd.

He wasn’t at all sure what his face was doing anymore, but from Jay’s blush, it was something good. “Hey, beautiful,” he said, patting the mattress beside him. “You want to come over here?”

Something complicated flickered across Jay’s face, but he knelt on the bed facing Roy, the side of his thigh pressed to Roy’s. Then he glanced down, and with a sudden determined expression, slung his thigh over Roy’s and shifted his weight so that he was straddling him. He wasn’t quite sitting in Roy’s lap, up on his knees like that, but if he lowered himself a few inches, he would be.

It turned out that Jason Todd in his underwear practically in Roy’s lap put Jason Todd in his underwear standing in Roy’s bedroom to shame.

Roy didn’t try to play it cool. He didn’t have to, not with Jay. “God, you are just…” he breathed, hands settling on Jay’s hips as he leaned forward. Jay met him in a kiss, a little more urgent than before, his hands curving over Roy’s bare shoulders.

Roy stroked his thumbs over Jay’s hipbones, teasing little circles that had Jay sinking lower and lower into his lap, swallowing the hitch in Jay’s breath when his erection bumped Roy’s stomach. He nudged Jay’s chin up and let his lips pay adoring homage to the sharp line of his jaw, the softness of his throat, the swell of his Adam’s apple, until Jay was breathing hard and rocking his hips forward so slightly Roy wasn’t sure he was even aware of it.

“Hey,” he murmured against Jay’s ear. “What do you want? You can have anything.”

This time the hitch in Jay’s breathing was unmissable. “I...uh…”

Roy pulled back and took in Jay’s flushed cheeks and slightly overwhelmed expression, and decided to narrow the options. “How about if I go down on you?” he asked. “Would that be okay?”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jay said, which was probably a yes but Roy wasn’t taking anything for granted. “You want to?”

“God, yes,” Roy said, laughing a little. “Do you know how many times I’ve daydreamed about getting you in my mouth? It’s becoming a problem.”

Jay’s cheeks went even redder. Roy wanted to kiss them, so he did. “Well. I mean. It would be cruel of me to let you go on suffering,” Jay said. “Should I…?”

He started to shift off of Roy’s lap, but Roy’s hands slid to the small of his back and held him in place. “In a minute,” Roy said. “Just...while you’re there…”

He leaned in again, this time kissing his way down Jason’s throat to his chest, taking care to completely disregard the scars. He didn’t avoid them, he didn’t linger on them; he treated them like every other part of Jay, ordinary and adored.

When he reached Jay’s nipple, rosy brown and already tightening with arousal, Jay let out a soft “Oh” that Roy wanted to bottle and keep forever. He settled for dragging the flat of his tongue across the stiffening peak, feeling Jay’s hands dig into his hair as his back arched.

“Roy, _fuck_ ,” Jay gasped, and Roy glanced up at him through his lashes.

“Okay?” he asked. Jay nodded frantically, and Roy grinned and did it again.

And god, Jay was a dream, writhing in his lap, tugging helplessly on Roy’s hair and he hadn’t even gotten below the _waist_ yet. Roy licked and sucked on Jay’s nipples by turns, teasing them lightly with his teeth and fingers, blowing across the wet skin to feel him shiver, until his neck ached from craning it and Jay’s breath was coming out like a sob.

“ _Roy_ ,” he pleaded. The cotton of his underwear where his erection pressed it into Roy’s stomach had been damp for a while now.

Roy straightened up, rolling his neck on his shoulders to get the crick out of it. “Tired of that?” he asked. Jay gave him a look that was half dazed, half frustrated, and Roy laughed out loud. “You want to lie down for me?”

“Kind of want to kick you, but sure, I’ll lie down,” Jay muttered, sliding off of Roy’s lap and onto the mattress next to him. He stretched out, and Roy pushed himself to his knees, scooting backwards until he was settled between Jay’s spread legs.

When he bent down, though, Jay stopped him with a gentle foot on his thigh and said, “Wait.”

Roy looked up expectantly. Jay went even redder, somehow.

“Could you, um, take off your boxers?” he asked. “I want to, uh. To see you.”

It was Roy’s turn to flush hot at that, at the uncharacteristic timidity of the request combined with the desire evident in Jay’s expression and every line of his body. “Sure,” he said, mouth dry, and shucked off his boxers, the back of his neck warming further as Jay’s gaze dropped to his straining dick.

“That’s all you,” Roy said softly. “This is what you do to me, Jay.”

“God,” Jay said, his hands covering his face. “You were supposed to fuck me, not _kill_ me.”

Roy laughed again, bright and happy. “Sorry, baby,” he said, bending to kiss Jay’s knee before scooting back into a better position. He let his palms skim over the broad curves of Jay’s thighs, feeling the warmth and solidity of him, watching his face as Jay dropped his own hands to look at him.

“You’re gorgeous, you know,” Roy said, kissing Jay’s thigh just under the leg opening of his boxer briefs. “I could look at you all day. Especially like this.” He leaned forward to kiss the sensitive skin just above Jay’s waistband, the narrow trail of dark hair leading from his bellybutton to under the elastic.

“Roy, please,” Jay said faintly, shifting under his touch.

Roy decided to show a bit of mercy. After all, he had plenty of time to tease Jay in the future. It scared him, a little, how _far_ into the future he’d been imagining Jay lately.

He pushed the thought aside and mouthed gently along the line of Jay’s dick, visibly hard through the taut cotton, a damp patch spreading around the head. Jay let out a breathy, helpless noise that Roy made an immediate vow to draw out of him again as many times as humanly possible.

He would have kept Jay like that longer, but he’d worked himself up almost as much as Jay, and he needed Jay in his mouth _yesterday_. Hooking his fingers into the waistband of Jay’s underwear, he eased them over his dick and tugged them down his legs. Jay kind of looked like he wanted to hide behind his hands again; Roy wasn’t sure where he was getting the blood to blush with, with his dick so thick and flushed against his stomach. His mouth watered.

“So fucking gorgeous,” he said again, and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to the underside of the head. It jumped beneath his lips and he grinned. “Well, hello to you too.”

“I am _definitely_ going to kick you,” Jay said, sounding a little strangled.

Roy’s grin widened. “Just let me get you in my mouth and I don’t care _what_ you do to me,” he said.

Jay flopped his head back against the pillow and waved his hand at Roy in a helpless sort of “get on with it” gesture. Roy wrapped his hand around the base of Jay’s dick to steady it, enjoying how hot and vital it felt against his palm, and dragged his tongue from just above the curve of his thumb to the leaking head.

“Roy…” Jay said, and then bit his lip. Roy kept his eyes locked on Jay’s as he repeated the path with his tongue, slower this time, and Jay’s teeth dug in harder.

“You’re allowed to make noise,” Roy murmured, close enough that his breath gusted over Jay’s damp skin. “I mean, don’t wake the kid, but…” He lapped up the precome beading at the slit. “I want to hear you.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jay groaned, low and soft. “Roy, I...I need more, come on. Please?”

Roy’s own dick twitched at the earnestness of the plea, how rumpled and eager Jay looked in his bed. “Okay, baby,” he murmured. “Just lie back. I’m gonna take care of you.”

He took Jay in his mouth then, sliding a couple inches down before pulling back up, taking in more of him every time he bobbed his head. Jay let out a startled noise, too loud and cut off halfway through as he remembered.

But no little feet came to disturb them and so Roy kept going, and a minute later Jay started making noise again - quieter this time, and barely any words except Roy’s name, but Roy had never had any problem with wordless gasps and moans, and Jay’s were particularly sweet.

He took Jay as deep as he could without opening up his throat, his hand pumping the rest of the shaft in rhythm, while his other palm spread over Jay’s stomach to remind him to stay down. Jay’s hips still rocked minutely with Roy’s movements, his stomach flexing under his hand, but Roy didn’t mind that, liked knowing that he was driving Jay past the point of self-control.

He liked everything about this, in fact: the feeling of Jay thick and hot in his mouth; the taste of precome on his tongue and the low ache in his jaw. The way Jay shifted and sighed beneath him and the sweetly astonished look on his face whenever Roy glanced up beneath his lashes. The fact that it was _Jay_ in his bed this first night and as many nights as Roy could get; that he was already thinking that maybe it would never be anyone else.

Jay might have been a virgin before tonight, but he must’ve heard about proper blowjob etiquette somewhere, because suddenly he was reaching down to tug at Roy’s hair in warning. “Roy, I’m close, I’m...please, I can’t…”

Roy pulled off, still stroking Jay, and had to rub himself against the mattress a little at the soft groan Jay let out. “You can finish in my mouth,” he said. “I want you to.”

“Oh _fuck_ ,” Jay said heartily, and Roy chuckled and dipped his head again. Either Jay had cut it very close or he _really_ liked the idea of coming in Roy’s mouth, because Roy had barely gotten his lips around him when Jay let out another groan, this one muffled by his hand, and spilled across Roy’s tongue. Roy swallowed around him, swallowed down his choked whimpers until he felt Jay shudder and start to squirm away from him.

He pulled off again, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and sitting back on his heels to enjoy the sight of Jay, dazed and spent and beautiful and all his. “Hey,” he said, smiling softly. “How’re you doing over there?”

Jay rolled his eyes tiredly but he was smiling back. “Come here,” he said, and then, “Holy shit.”

Roy obediently crawled back up the bed. “Before you ask, no, it’s not always like that. I’m just _very_ good.”

Jay laughed into his mouth. “Shut up,” he said before kissing him, making an interested hum at the taste but not pulling away.

Roy pressed in close to him, his erection nudging up against Jay’s hip. Jay pulled back and glanced down between them. “Do you want to...should I…” he said, starting to reach for Roy and then drawing back.

“Whatever you’re comfortable with,” Roy said, even though he ached with the need for Jay to touch him, for _any_ kind of contact. “But I’d love to get your hands on me.”

“Oh,” Jay breathed, and reached down again, this time wrapping his hand around Roy’s dick and giving him a light stroke. Roy groaned into his shoulder, and Jay smirked. “Good?”

“No, that’s not fair,” Roy said. “You don’t get to be a tease immediately, you have to work up to it.”

Jay laughed again and tightened his grip a bit, stroking Roy more firmly. “You’re so hard,” he murmured. “That’s just from sucking me off?”

“Mm...that’s practically just from being in the same room as you, Jaybird,” Roy said, shifting his hips in rhythm with Jay’s strokes. “Or did you miss how incredibly fucking stunning you are?”

Jay opened his mouth, then shut it. Roy leaned in and kissed him firmly.

“You’re gorgeous,” he said. “I could look at you all day and never get enough. And the fact that you’re touching me now is...fuck, Jay, you have no idea how lucky I feel, do you?”

Jay’s cheeks were pink again. “I think I’m starting to get an idea of it.” Then his brow furrowed. “But if you’re this chatty, I’m not doing my job,” he added, and pumped Roy’s dick a little faster, rubbing his thumb over the leaking slit with every pass.

Roy bucked into his fist. “Trust me, no...fuck, Jay...no complaints here.”

“Yeah?” Jay asked. “I’ve never done this before. I mean, for someone else.” His blush darkened. “Which you knew. Shutting up now.”

“Mm, you’d better not,” Roy said, leaning in to kiss him. “I am very into hearing about you jerking off.”

“Oh god,” Jay said, glancing away.

Roy kissed his jaw. “Please,” he coaxed. _Fuck_ , but he wanted to hear this.

“Jesus,” Jay said. “I...it’s mostly been you lately, okay? Is that what you wanted me to say? I’ve been thinking about you.”

Roy hadn’t actually been expecting that, and it was dizzyingly hot. “Oh fuck, Jay, you’re killing me.”

“You deserve it,” Jay grumbled, but he didn’t stop stroking Roy, his hand strong and sure, and when Roy tilted his face in for a kiss, he met him halfway. “I thought about doing this, you know.”

Roy moaned, muffling it against Jay’s shoulder because they needed to be quiet. “ _Shit_ , you’re a fast learner.”

Jay chuckled, hand speeding up a little. “Thought about touching you everywhere. Thought about you _letting_ me.”

“Yes, god, you can do whatever you want to me, _fuck_.” Roy’s hips hitched forward helplessly. “Jay…”

“Come on, baby,” Jay murmured, “come on,” and Roy let out a choked gasp and spilled all over his hand.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jay breathed, and took his hand away.

Roy blinked bleary eyes and looked up to see him licking his own fingers tentatively. His dick twitched, despite having just come. “Oh my god. _Jay_.”

“Just curious,” Jay explained, and wrinkled his nose a little. “I think I’ll use a tissue for the rest of it.”

Roy laughed and flailed a hand around in the direction of the nightstand until he found the tissues. They cleaned themselves up and then Roy pulled the brand-new blanket over them both, wiggling until they were curled onto their sides, facing each other.

They’d lain like this just a few weeks ago - closer, really - but it felt like a different world. Then, they’d been on the precipice of a new possibility. Now, Roy had that possibility in his hands, and he wasn’t letting go of it for anything.

“Hi,” he said, smiling.

“Hi.” Jay looked vaguely grumpy, suddenly. Roy wasn’t worried. Jay had several flavors of grumpy, and he was pretty sure this one translated to “coming down off the post-coital high and abruptly shy.”

So he picked up Jay’s hand and kissed the knuckles, watching the way the furrow in Jay’s brow eased slightly. “I’m really glad you stayed,” he said, turned Jay’s hand over and kissed the palm.

Jay sighed with his whole body and melted into Roy, until they were tangled together with Jay’s forehead tucked under Roy’s chin. “Me too,” he mumbled into Roy’s chest.

“Do you think you might want to...stay again, in the future?”

Jay snorted. “If you’re asking if I want to have sex again, yes, obviously.”

“Hey, you don’t know. I could just want to really make sure this bed is comfortable for two grown men to sleep in.”

“Dumbass,” Jay said affectionately, and pinched the skin over his ribs gently.

“Guilty as charged.” Roy let his fingers card through Jay’s thick curls and kissed the top of his head. “Night, Jaybird.”

Jay burrowed closer, apparently comfortable where he was. “Night.”

He went sleepy and heavy in Roy’s arms almost immediately, but Roy stayed awake a bit longer, caught up in the miracle of it: that Jay had trusted him enough to sleep with him; that he was trusting him enough to _sleep_ with him, to know he was safe in Roy’s arms. If the nightmares came, Roy would be there.

Roy breathed in the scent of Jay’s shampoo and wondered once again how he’d gotten so lucky. He was starting to suspect he’d be wondering that for a long time.

He was pretty sure he was okay with that.

**Author's Note:**

> Roy's poppy tattoo is inspired by [this stunning piece of fanart](https://pluckyredhead.tumblr.com/post/616837881638567936/kala-fiorek-it-is-really-random-but-on-the-side). The band is his canon post-Crisis tattoo and the bow and arrow is just a personal headcanon, as is the willow tree. Cheshire says Lian's name means "the graceful willow" in canon (presumably in Mandarin?) but I am not 100% convinced of the veracity of that based on what I could find via Google - corrections are welcome!
> 
> [Come say hi on tumblr!](https://pluckyredhead.tumblr.com/)


End file.
